Comments about ‘Pediatricians' Rx for schools: Later start times’

As educators we have known this for years, but the reality of developing bus
schedules that can travel the needed routes to different schools in a cost
efficient manner. Early bed time and more sleep is about the only practical
answer.

Why don't parents take the responsibility of taking their kids cell phones
away and making the go to be earlier. Why is it the schools responsibility to
make sure teenagers get enough sleep. Isn't that a parental
responsibility?

Quite right. In addition, I would add that the purpose of
education is to prepare young people to enter the workforce. This isn't
limited to "hard skills" (reading, writing, math, etc.) that they will
need in order to be able to do their future jobs. It also includes "soft
skills" such as critical thinking, work ethic, teamwork, etc. One of those
"soft skills" is learning how to get to bed at a reasonable hour so you
can get up for your work day, which most often starts at 8:00.

Are we
really preparing our kids for the working world if we start their school at
11:00, while the day after they graduate they have to start work at 8:00?
No.

Work usually beings in the early-ish morning. That's when
kids need to be in school so they can get used to it.

While adequate sleep (most teens need more than 8 hours) is a good thing, it
will not reset the biological clocks. Teems brains and bodies operate on a
different one than younger children; we've know this for at least 15 years.